Until I'm not needed
by Politik
Summary: Disaster has struck at the 4077th....


Disclaimer: I do not own anything!

A/N: Enjoy. More coming some time soon!

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Hawkeye examined the remains of the camp from his hiding place; it was dark but the smouldering buildings glowed in the intermittent moonlight creating shadows amongst the few still standing tents and the smell of burning rubber issued from the motor pool. 

He sighed and shock himself gently assessing his injures; apart from a slight pain in his neck and a dazed feeling he assumed was shock he felt just fine. 

The night was silent, eerily so, in fact the longer Hawkeye thought about it the eerier it became, there wasn't one sound to be heard, no voices, no birds, no war, no nothing. He thought he must have died and gone to limbo; but Korea was limbo itself so that couldn't be right.

His head felt heavy and his eyelids were drooping, his head sagged till it came to rest on a particularly jagged piece of wood which had been a part of the mess tent roof in its previous life. This added pain was enough to force Hawkeye's eyes open and a groan to emit from his mouth. He moved his head about; irritated by a humming that was now taking over from the silence he had experienced earlier. But this shuddering only aggravated the humming which was becoming buzzing, and sending stabbing pains into his head, though they could have been from the wound in his back – he wasn't sure. 

However, through this incessant buzzing, he was becoming aware of other noises, he could just make out the faint cries of a female voice and a quiet murmuring; every so often he could also make out the sounds of wood crackling in the still burning fires, and the splintering of timber as it fell to earth. 

Hawkeye sat staring at the scene as the sounds grew louder and louder, till they were so louder they were overbearing and overwhelming making him want to sit up and turn them off like a radio. His head thumped and his body screamed. He sat not moving, just listening and detached.

How long he remained like this one will never know; trapped in his own stunned being, searching for something, something he was trying to understand; something he couldn't quite grasp…He stared at his bloodied hands lost in dazed thoughts. He was missing something.

Shuffling stumbling feet moving past his refuge brought him back to the reality he was living. A youthful and panicked voice called through the noise that Hawkeye was shielding himself from. It was calling to him, over and over; a desperation to it that was haunting. He closed his eyes and the shuffling feet went on carrying the voice further away till it was engulfed and drowned out by the other sounds of the night. 

But the voice had riled Hawkeye enough to awaken his senses and he began to assess his surroundings for the first time. Instead of staring out of the small opening he turned inward, and finding himself in a small and confined space began to panic. The mess tent had collapsed onto of the table he was incarcerated under, he was trapped and the claustrophobia that was always lingering set in. His breathing became lumbered and heavy as he tried to contain his feelings and fight his way out of his prison.

He wriggled and turned and suddenly he was free. He was floating. He was on the outside looking in, but seeing only darkness he hastily turned his back on the squalid hole. His pains were gone for the moment as he searched the compound from his superior viewpoint… he had work to do.

                                                                        *

He found Radar easily by following the sound of the young man's immature voice still shouting his name. When the calm and friendly face of Dr Pierce loomed out of the gloom, Radar was beside himself with relief.

'I th... th… thought you were all dead…' he murmured, clutching his teddy bear tighter to his chest before burying his head in Hawkeye's arm that had found its way round his shoulders. 'Or worse…that I was and this was hell....' his eyes wide with concern and distress 'but then I saw Henry….or I... I thought I did…,' he petered off, confused by what it meant.

Hawkeye let the boy stand in the comfort of his silent embrace for a while before pressing him on the subject of the others.

'Where is Potter? …BJ? …Charles?' He asked tentatively not sure he wanted the answer, fearing the worse at Radar's shrugs, till Radar blinked and stated 'The Colonel sent me to find you, he needs help in surgery'. 'Was that before or after the bombing started Radar?' The young man shrugged, he couldn't think straight, time seemed to have merged; he looked at Hawkeye with a hopeless look of uncertainty.

'Well. There's only one way to find out' Hawkeye admonished with a grim look on his face and started towards the only partially still standing building of the O.R. 


End file.
